To: Emiliana Guereca and Deena Katz, Women’s March Los Angeles Foundation Co-Executive Directors
Cc: Women’s March National Team and Board Of Directors
Dear Ms. Guereca and Ms. Katz,
As representatives of several marginalized communities of women, we are excited by the initiative you have taken to organize the Women’s March in Los Angeles. But, we are increasingly frustrated by the lack of transparency and accountability with which the march is organized, how it continues to sideline women from marginalized communities in favor of celebrities and Democratic Party officials.
We feel the Women’s March in Los Angeles marginalizes several communities, among them Black women, indigenous women, women of color, poor women, queer women, transgender women, non-binary people, undocumented women, and disabled women. Using the Unity Principles which the Women’s March Los Angeles purports to adopt as a starting point, we’ve outlined below specific ways your march marginalizes these communities. We’ve also listed specific actions we feel you must take to remedy the issues:
Unity Principles Statement: The march “[employs] a decentralized, leader-full structure”.
Issue: While the March certainly feels decentralized, we simply cannot see how an organization in which only two women, one white and one Latina, make decisions for a march of hundreds of thousands is “leaderfull”. We do not feel your organization is “leaderfull” when it fails to include any Black, indigenous, transgender, or disabled women among its visible leadership.
Demand: Immediately establish a democratic committee of women representative of the city of Los Angeles to make top level decisions for the Women’s March. This committee must include Black, indigenous, transgender, and disabled women currently sidelined from decision making in the march.
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Unity Principles Statement: Women’s march advocates a “representative vision for a government that is based on the principles of liberty and justice for all”
Issue #1: The Women’s March does not appear to operate democratically or transparently so how can you advocate for vision of democratic government of any kind? We know nothing about the organization beyond that is has two co-executive directors and is a non-profit. There are no meaningful or clearly defined ways to give input on the march or the organization. Funding sources are hidden, so there is no check on donor power.
Demand: Conduct all operations of the Women’s March Los Angeles openly and transparently, including publishing openly important documents such as budgets, a list of board of directors, and a list of funding sources and major donors. Seek regular input from the Los Angeles community through open community forums.
Issue #2: Your march is not representative if it does not have a meaningful connection to marginalized communities of Los Angeles or the activists doing work in them. You list many community partners on your website, but hardly a single one of them gave meaningful input on the march. As far as we can tell, being a community partner means you have a place to table. That is not meaningful partnership.
Demand: Seek regular input on the direction of the march from community partners and establish an advisory committee made up of leaders of grassroots groups.
Commit to meaningful support for the work of community partners working directly with oppressed communities of Los Angeles. This may include financial assistance, engaging the march’s supporters to support the work of community partners, or sharing mailing lists and other resources the march has access to.
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Unity Principles Statement: The march advocates for an “ambitious, fundamental and comprehensive agenda”.
Issue: Your march this year is focused entirely on building electoral support for democratic politicians. You have notable speakers like Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti when he is implicated in failing to hold the LAPD accountable for its targeting of Black community members and in selling out large portions of working class neighborhoods in Los Angeles to greedy developers.
Demand: Do not blindly endorse Democratic Party politicians. Demand politicians endorse the entirety of the Unity Principles and commit to specific political action before endorsement. Along with this, recognize the importance of political engagement through other avenues besides voting
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Unity Principles Statement: “We believe in accountability and justice for police brutality”
Issue: Women’s March Los Angeles seems to work uncritically with the racist, brutal, terrorizing force that is LAPD. Moreover, at the March last year we found tons of white women were thanking police for “protecting” the march, failing to recognize their presence is a threat to women of color in general and Black women specifically. While you are certainly not accountable for every marcher, failing to do the work to educate white women on the role of police here in Los Angeles constitutes being complicit in this kind of racism.
Demand: Change the way you work with LAPD. Challenge police presence as much as a possible. Take specific actions to make the march safer for those communities that are targeted by LAPD. Do not feature politicians who blindly support LAPD actions against communities of color. Engage your white supporters on issues of race, and why the police are a threat.
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Unity Principles Statement: “We believe Gender Justice is Racial Justice is Economic Justice.”
Issue: The Unity Principles make several commitments to just representation for women of color. But somehow, in a city in which white people are the minority, you have still managed to assemble a speakers list that is overwhelmingly white. While we appreciate the inclusion of important leaders like Kimberlé Crenshaw, Melina Abdullah, and Laverne Cox, we are sad their presence is hidden behind touted wealthy white celebrities. The speakers list simply does not look like the city you represent. And given Latinx people are the largest single ethnic demographic in Los Angeles, they are woefully underrepresented in your list of speakers.
Demand: De-prioritize celebrities and politicians as speakers at the march. Instead, focus on community organizers/mobilizers, activists and marginalized women of color. Speakers must be representative of the demographics of Los Angeles, in which white people are a minority and Latinx people make up the largest single ethnic demographic.
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Unity Principles Statement: “we believe in immigrant and refugee rights regardless of status or country of origin”
Issue: Our City produced the largest immigrants rights marches in the the nation’s history in 2006, yet your speakers list is surprisingly light on immigrants rights advocates. The march has done almost no work to connect to the rich ecosystem of immigrants rights organizations in Los Angeles, nor has it attempted to build on the existing knowledge gained from over a decade of May Day marches. Furthermore, the City of Los Angeles’ City Council is currently in the process of approving a grant from Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), a federal government program that aims at targeting and surveilling Muslim, Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA), East African, and South Asian community members. This is directly impacting Los Angeles’ immigrant and refugee communities. We see no mention of these real dangers to immigrant communities.
Demand: Involve immigrants rights advocates and if possible undocumented people in your leadership. Feature them in your speakers list. Collaborate with immigrants rights organizations which have been organizing an annual march in LA for a decade. With such a high profile as the Women's March has garnered, it’s your responsibility to help hold the city accountable for supporting discriminatory and dangerous programs like CVE, and as we are witnessing ICE colluding with local law enforcement to deport immigrants and rip apart families.
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Unity Principles Statement: “it is our obligation to uplift, expand and protect the rights of our gay, lesbian, bi, queer, trans, two-spirit or gender non-conforming brothers, sisters and siblings.”
Issue: Your march seems to involve almost no transgender women in any capacity. Other than having Laverne Cox as a speaker, the march is absent in the fight for trans rights. The space of the march is not at all a safe space for transgender women. A trans woman at the 2017 march found herself in a sea of people equating being a woman with having a vagina. While we recognize the specific attacks on female genitalia by our president necessitate a need to respond, the march has made no effectors to educate people that not every woman has a pussy to grab.
Demand: Commit to making the march a safer space for transgender women and non-binary people. This includes raising awareness that genitalia does not equal identity, and that women come in all kinds of bodies. Include transgender people in your leadership.
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Unity Principles Statement: “We support Indigenous women’s right to access, own, develop and control land and its resources.”
Issue: You feature as a headline speaker Scarlett Johansson, who in 2014 was removed as an ambassador for Oxfam after she became a spokeswoman for SodaStream, a company which at the time operated a controversial factory on a settlement built illegally in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Of the move, Johansson stated “I have no regrets” (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/16/scarlett-johansson-stands-by-sodastream-deal)
Demand: Divest from all speakers whose actions or works support the illegal occupation of indigenous lands. Include indigenous voices in your leadership, begin marches recognizing that we are on occupied Tongva land.
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Unity Principles Statement: “We believe that all women’s issues are issues faced by women with disabilities and Deaf women”
Issue: The disorganized and opaque nature of the current march makes it an unsafe space for all women, but particularly disabled women. Last year, people in wheelchairs were trampled. But honestly, how can any community with safety concerns plan for a march which has yet to release its official route with less than a week to go until the event? How can groups plan safe exit routes, or meeting points, or frankly take any steps to ensure safety with so little information on the logistics of the march? Where is a list of accessible bathrooms on the march route? Where is detailed information on medical assistance for people with health concerns? How do we even know if there will be enough water?
Demand: Make safety of participants the first priority of the march. Commit to publishing open and detailed logistics information for the march weeks ahead of time. Take specific measures to protect people with mobility issues, health concerns, and other disabilities. Collaborate with groups that have unique concerns so they can take additional measures to protect their members safety.
We value the unique role the Women’s March has played in bringing thousands of women out into the streets in protest of this fascist president. But, as marginalized women, we demand a greater vision, and feel we cannot build a more powerful movement without acknowledgement and remedy of the issues that have plagued the Women’s March in Los Angeles. To this end, we will apply pressure to the march through grassroots organizing until we see meaningful change. We hope you will respond to this letter with immediate recognition and commitment to addressing our concerns. In the meantime, we will continue to raise awareness of these issues publicly until we see a response.
In Solidarity,
Trans* Contingent @ Women’s March Los Angeles
Southwest Asian & North Afrikan - Los Angeles (SWANA-LA)
VigilantLOVE
BDS-LA 4 Justice in Palestine
Afghan Women in the Diaspora